ThingSpeak

ThingSpeak is an IoT analytics service that lets you capture, analyze and act on data streams from the cloud. It also can perform sophisticated data analysis with MATLAB, a programming language and software tool, so you can quickly get an IoT project underway or monitor the environment, power usage and crops.

ThingSpeak supports a variety of hardware platforms, including Arduino, Raspberry Pi and ESP8266 and ESP32 Wi-Fi modules, so you can use it with whatever you have on hand. The service stores data in private and public channels, so you can keep your data secret or share it with others. You can send data to ThingSpeak using RESTful and MQTT programming interfaces for efficient communication.

Here's what ThingSpeak can do:

• Collect: Send sensor data privately to the cloud.
• Analyze: Use MATLAB for data analysis and visualization.
• Act: Trigger actions based on data patterns.

ThingSpeak offers a free service for small non-commercial projects, with a 3 million message limit per year. For bigger projects or commercial use, there are several license options, including Standard, Academic, Student and Home. The licenses offer different combinations of message limits and channel creation abilities.

The Standard license, for example, offers 33 million messages per year and up to 250 channels. Commercial customers also can sign up for a free evaluation version of the service that lasts for a few months to try it out.

ThingSpeak's biggest advantages are its ability to connect to a variety of devices, perform sophisticated analysis with MATLAB and show real-time data. That makes it a good choice for IoT projects, research and real-world use.

Published on July 11, 2024